


Runnin' Home to You

by MirrorKing96



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 08:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11414286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorKing96/pseuds/MirrorKing96
Summary: 2024 Barry gets a big shock when out for a run.





	Runnin' Home to You

**Author's Note:**

> Random (and not beta'd), but I hope you like it!

* * *

The last bars of the song played as Barry led Iris to the window seat and sat her down, the chords of the piano trilling prettily over the sounds of traffic below. Iris watched him fondly, no doubt not expecting what he was about to do next. “ _Can’t say how the days will unfold_ ,” he sings softly over the violins, digging into his pocket. He’d taken Joe aside before they left STAR Labs, leaving Kara and Iris already planning a visit to Earth-38 so Iris could see CatCo, to ask for his blessing to propose to Iris properly this time. He had carried the ring around in the box since he got back from the Speed Force, trying to figure out the best way to show her what she meant to him beyond being the thing that he wanted to save. He remembered when he got back to their apartment and Iris said she was ready to be his wife, and he wanted nothing more than to accept it, than to slide that ring back on her finger and show the world that they had promised to be each other’s forever.

But deep down, Barry knew that she deserved better than that. He knew that she deserved better than a proposal out of fear, that was only salvaged after he rescued her brother from a hell that he was responsible for putting him in in the first place. Iris was too selfless to admit that, but even in the midst of all his short-sighted mistakes in trying to save her, he at least could see that. So he resolved to give her a better proposal and, well…he had always been a great singer.

(Joe said yes, and then laughed good-naturedly about his idea to sing the proposal. Then Wally had walked past during the conversation and laughed too, demanding video. In fact, he was still texting him about it at that very minute).

“ _Can’t say what the future may hold_ ,” he continued, standing up. Iris looked up at him, a slight frown on her face, until she saw the ring come out of his pocket, and then her hands flew to her mouth in shock. Barry smiled – the thing with doing the proposal so soon after the last one meant that she definitely wouldn’t see it coming. “ _But I want you in it_ ,” he sang. “ _Every hour, every…minute_.”

Barry took a deep breath, steadying himself. “Iris West,” he began softly, “will you marry me?”

Her hands fell away from her face as she gaped at him. “Yes,” she gasped out, like she couldn’t believe he’d expected another answer. He let out a relieved laugh, smiling. “ _Yes_!”

Barry took that as his cue and slid the ring on her finger, and then she was in his arms and kissing him. He could feel their hearts thundering together as she wrapped her arms around him, and he thought there would be nothing better than this feeling, probably not until Joe was walking her down the aisle and Cisco was standing next to him and Wally was doing his Man of Honour duty in making sure no supervillain got through the doors…

And then her heart stopped.

Barry could no longer feel it beating against his own. He broke away from her and opened his eyes; hers were still closed. “Iris?” he whispered. Then he looked up and around and his heart shuddered – they weren’t in their apartment anymore, lit up by the glow of their fire. He was on his knees at Infantino Street, Iris clad in that grey jacket and unmoving in his arms. When he looked down, he could see that blood from her chest had seeped through her clothes and onto him, shining in the harsh light from the street lamps. Cold shot through him, familiar to him as his own name as much as he had seen it, but it always shocked him.

Savitar had killed her.

Barry had failed, because here was Iris West lifeless as he held her, here they both were at Infantino Street on May 23rd, and Iris was dead…

“Iris?” He was shaking her and it was futile, he knew, but it was unacceptable, even now, Iris couldn’t be dead. “Iris, no, no-no-no-no, Iris, come on, _please_ …”

Barry shook his head violently, flinging himself back to the present. There was no proposal, no death, he had been daydreaming. Daydreaming while running.

Which was all he seemed to do these days.

The city flashed past him as he whipped through the streets, buildings and cars and people bleeding together as he raced past them. He always did that on patrol, he noticed. When it was a quiet afternoon, like it was on this Friday in April, he tended to think about everything, the ghosts of his past here to haunt him once again. He had tried to block it out, that particular one, because it was ingenious in his cruelty. To take him from the highest point of happiness to what marked the start of his sinking into despair, all within the same dream.

Barry glanced at his watch. His patrol would be over soon, and then he would have to get back to work. Well, his work at STAR Labs, anyway. He had left CCPD soon after Iris died, not wanting to frequent the place that had been the place where they’d waited for Joe as kids after school, where they shared lunches and complained about their days when they became adults, where they saved the world from their little corner as civilians. Still, his work was important – they were working on some new security protocols when it came to The Flash saving the city, Cisco and Julian were looking at new prosthetics for his hands, and Barry was working on something that could possibly restore Wally’s walking. His mind was another matter. All of this, because of Barry Allen.

Not Barry Allen of 2024, not himself. No, this was because of the Barry who came from 2017, who still had some hope and fight left in him. It was easy for him, though. It was easy when you had Iris to believe in you and Wally to be your partner and Joe to be your protector. It was easy when you had a team. For a long time he hadn’t had that – and it was his fault. He had pushed them all away and abandoned them after he defeated Savitar. They had even shunned one of the remaining time remnants that failed to stop him, reminding them all too much of their failure.

Still, that was in the past now. He hadn’t known he was _quite_ so persuasive when he wanted to be (not to mention kind of annoying), especially when he had that much hope left in him. So now he was moving and working and running, but not because of Barry, but because of Iris. He had failed in his promise to her, but he didn’t always have to. Iris would want him to keep running.

Barry briefly debated stopping over at Jitters to get some coffee, but it was still too hard. H.R. had even brought back ‘The Flash’ to make him feel better, but that place had always belonged to them, whether as teenagers going for their first expensive coffees and Iris discovered her love for Americanos, or when she started working there and he came to see her everyday, or those magical nights where he was The Flash and she was the girl he loved that told his story to the world. Still, maybe he could get them to bring the coffee to STAR Labs. He could always use the fuel when-

Barry’s entire body shuddered and lightning seemed to snap through him; felt as though ice were passing through him. Then his vision went blurry and a shrill wind whipped past him. When it was over, Barry was stood in front of the “Welcome to Central City” sign. He was looking around, trying to figure out where the hell that had come from, when something caught his eye, just underneath the sign.

_Home to The Flash_

_And Kid Flash!_

“Wally?” he breathed. That – that wasn’t possible. Wally was in a wheelchair. He hadn’t spoken in years, much less been able to become the Kid Flash that Central City had come to love. And since Barry had given up on being a hero, they took the sign down. He was back, but it had only been for a month. When did they get time to put them both back?

Barry looked down at his hand – and was shocked to see a large golden ring with the Flash insignia on it. He took it off – and his suit completely disappeared, leaving him in his civilian clothes. He looked up and down the highway, but it was quiet, and he thanked God no one was able to see him. He tried to slip the ring on, but nothing happened; he just stayed in his clothes. What in the-

“Shit,” he muttered as his phone started buzzing. _Cisco Ramon_ , the screen read. Good, maybe he could shed some light on all this. “Cisco?”

“Dude,” he answered frantically. “Where are you? Your patrol was supposed to end twenty minutes ago.”

Barry didn’t reply for a minute. This did not sound like Cisco, who still had that note of dejection that had invaded his voice since Killer Frost took his hands…and Caitlin destroyed their friendship. “Um…”

“Whatever,” he said quickly. “Just get back here, fast – it’s an emergency.”

He hung up without another word and Barry put the phone away. Whatever it was, it had to be serious – maybe something to do with Wally, or Joe. But STAR Labs was not what he expected it to be when he got there.

Firstly, it didn’t exist. When Barry got there, he saw a long line of people snaking out from a large red-brick building that was decorated in red and yellow streamers. People were taking pictures and eating food, and there was an ice-cream truck nearby. At the same time as he saw the little kids dressed up in red and yellow costumes, he saw the museum entrance with the title emblazoned across the top of it: _Welcome to the Flash Museum!_

“What the…” Barry muttered to himself. He wandered up to the front, trying to find out what was going on, where there was a ticket inspector checking everyone’s tickets and bags. Some of them bristled as they saw him

“Excuse me,” he began. “I’m sorry to bother you, I-”

“Mr. Allen!” he smiled. He shook his hand warmly “Nice to see you. Say no more, say no more, let me just…” He took the rope separator away and shook his head at the people who started grumbling. “Sorry, folks. He owns the building.”

“I what?” he spluttered. He owned STAR Labs, not…this. But the ticket inspector was already turning back to the crowd.

“Enjoy the anniversary, sir!”

Barry found himself in a large entrance hall, music blaring from speakers and tour guides leading groups of people around. Streamers and balloons floated everywhere, and someone was blowing bubbles. It was indeed a museum dedicated to The Flash, since he saw a glass case with his original costume without the white emblem, a miniature simulation of the Particle Accelerator explosion, and in the far corner, where a bunch of students were gathered with pens and paper…his heart caught in his throat.

“…original blog,” the tour guide was explaining. Behind her, images and screenshots of Iris’ blog chased each other across the screen, and he saw the artist’s rendition that was in the paper when he defeated Girder, the picture she took of him after Peek-A-Boo, and all the times people caught him speeding through the city. “At the time, she was probably unaware of the impact of her chronicling the details of The Flash would impact the city, but ‘Saved By The Flash’ to this day is the only recorded source of the Scarlet Speedster’s earliest escapades. Mrs-”

Barry turned away before he could hear anymore. Whatever this was, he didn’t want to relive that pain. That was when he ran smack into Cisco, who was looking up at him with an irritated expression. He must have just come from an experiment, because he was still wearing a lab coat and gloves. Barry’s heart twinged, as it always did, at the reminder of his fate.

“What,” he muttered, “are you doing? Why didn’t you come through the back entrance?”

“The back – what?”

“How is the fastest man alive always this slow on the uptake?” Cisco started pushing him through the crowd, glancing at everyone with a hint of apprehension. “Come on, let’s get upstairs before-”

“Mr. Ramon! Mr. Ramon!”

A chorus of excited shouts hit them and Barry looked up to see a group of school children scurry towards them, their eyes alight with excitement. Cisco sighed and then smiled. “Hi again, everyone. Did you guys enjoy the talk?”

Most of them replied in the affirmative, and then they dissolved into a chorus of questions. “Is there going to be another one? Are you going to do a demonstration?” And then – “Is the Flash coming?”

Cisco laughed. “Sorry, guys, it’s his day off. You saw the news.”

Barry stared at everyone as they nodded sadly at this. What news? What happened? But Cisco was still placating the crowd. “Alright, alright,” he said. “I might have a little something special planned for you all next week.”

“What is it?” someone asked. “Is The Flash getting a new suit?”

“Now you guys know the big guy likes to make his own stuff,” he laughed. Then he winked at them. “But when have I ever let you down? Now, come on, I need to have a meeting with our illustrious owner here…”

Not many people were interested in him and they let them wander through the crowd and into a secluded corridor, but Barry didn’t have time to worry about that. Everything was upside-down – he apparently owned a museum about The Flash, Wally was somewhere being Kid Flash, and from the way Cisco was walking and talking as he led him down the corridor that…

“Cisco!” he exclaimed as Cisco removed his gloves. “You have hands!”

Barry grabbed his wrists and stared at them, and Cisco slapped his hands away. “Whoa there, stringbean,” he said. He took off his lab coat. “I know you and I are friends, and there may have been some tears during that _Toy Story_ marathon, but I’m not doing this with you. Besides, I’m married.”

“What?” Barry spluttered.

“ _Go be great, Cisco, start Ramon Industries, Cisco_ ,” his friend was muttering, “ _you’re too good to work for me for the rest of your life, Cisco_. I’m never listening to you again, I don’t care how much The Flash museum pays me to give talks here. Headaches, from the day I met you, I swear.”  Cisco hung up his gloves and labcoat on a hook outside an unmarked door, and then pressed his palm to the centre. When Barry looked, he saw that there was indeed a gold wedding band on the ring finger of his left hand. Barry automatically looked down at his – but of course, there was no ring there. He shouldn’t have hoped. “Cisco, what the hell is going on?”

“What’s going on is that it was supposed to be your day off,” he answered, walking through the door, and Barry felt a strange sensation pass through him as they walked over the threshold, “and you have to run around the East Coast with the Boy in Blue because you want us all to get scalped. I was under very strict instructions to make sure that you rested today.”

“I don’t know what you…talking…about…” he trailed off, staring at the room he was in. It was large but homey, with beat-up couches and some mini-fridges and a beanbag chair amongst the computers, desks, and workbenches. One wall was simply several television screens showing news from all over the city, and clocks showing the time from different parts of the world. The Flash and Kid Flash suits were in one corner, and there were five desks with various bits of clutter around them. One of them, with a table of beakers with a chalkboard sitting behind it, had one of his jackets draped across the back of the chair.

“What I’m talking about,” he continued, “is that I need your help. There’s some sort of breacher war going on between Earth-46 and Earth-47, and since there are only a few people authorised to deal with breachers-”

“It’s take your husband to work day,” a voice drawled, and Barry’s mouth dropped open when he saw Cynthia Reynolds, also known as The Love of Cisco’s Life If It Weren’t For Her Pesky Job, walk out of a breach, seemingly out of nowhere, all dressed up and ready to kill. She folded her arms. “Hey, Barry. Ready to go, Ramon?”

“Go where?” Barry demanded. “You guys, seriously, what’s going on?”

“This is why you should pay attention to the group chat,” Cisco said. He crossed to a wardrobe and started getting out a suit – his _Vibe_ suit. Barry gaped. “Cisco, what-”

“Relax, I’ll explain,” Cynthia says. “So apparently the in thing to do now is find loose portals and jump through them to other earths. There are gangs that do this and try to establish dominance between corridors, and then sell people trips between earths. They do it for the thrill.”

“Inter-dimension travel is illegal, but this takes the cake,” Cisco continued, slipping his goggles on. “So, I will need you to hold down the fort. Now, Wally’s on duty-”

“That,” Barry interrupted, pointing. “See, that – how is he walking?”

Cisco and Cynthia looked at each other. “It’s was just a broken leg, Barry,” Cynthia laughed. “He healed in a couple of hours.”

“ _How_? And – where are we?” He looked around, taking in the computers, the suits, the televisions. “What is this place? And how does no one find it if it’s right in the middle of this…museum?”

Cisco stared at him. “Wally’s Kid Flash,” Cisco said slowly. “This is HQ, and the reason no one finds it is because Cindy built a portal surrounding this room that transports people to a different part of the building unless they have the right identification to disable it.”

“How – _why_?”

“Because I’m incredible,” Cynthia answered, “and because you asked me to, string bean. When you built this place.”

Barry looked around, bewildered, and Cisco whistled. “Dude, maybe you do need that day off. I’ll call Wally and tell him to take care of himself.” He turned to Cynthia – his _wife_ , Barry realised. “Okay, honey, let’s go kick ass.”

Cynthia rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, and they were all alight with the glow of a portal. “You mean let’s go watch me kick ass and you try not to get yourself killed.”

“We have been married for four years – are you ever going to give me credit for being as awesome as you?”

“You are _not_ as awesome as me, Ramon. You are maybe half my level of awesome on a really good Tuesday.”

Cisco just grinned at this, and Barry cleared his throat. None of this was making any sense – it seemed more like an elaborate prank than anything else. He needed to find someone who would make sense of all this. “Joe,” he decided, though it made him wince. He had not been kind to his father figure, abandoning him in his time of need, but they were getting better since the past Flash had left. They had even gotten dinner together last week – or had it been the week before? “I need to talk to Joe – where is he?”

“At the precinct, maybe?” Cisco said, distracted. “You ready?”

“Ready, ready,” Cynthia nodded. She stepped through the portal with a wave at Barry, and Cisco made to follow her. “Wait!” he said, snapping his fingers. “You need to get the twins today – Joe can’t do it.”

“Twins? Cisco, I-”

But he was gone, and Barry was left alone in this room. He looked down at his hands, his body, trying to see whether things were different, but no – everything about _him_ was the same. He looked around – and then caught himself in a mirror. Instead of the long hair that he’d adopted after Iris died (or rather, barely cut), he had the short, styled hair that he usually wore to work. Actually, it was a little longer than it usually was. It looked good, actually.

“Help,” Barry said to the empty room, wondering what the _hell_ had happened to his life.

***

The precinct, at least, looked the same to him – or at least it looked like it did when The Flash came to visit and let everyone know the latest threat had been neutralised. He remembered a time when Iris did that – she had been the only reporter people trusted for information about The Flash, and Captain Singh never wavered from that. He walked inside, trying to shake off the memory, and looked around. It looked like a normal workday for everyone, to be honest – he could see some of the detectives gathered around a desk, studying something on the monitors, a couple of beat cops were changing shift, and people were coming in and out of the elevators. What was weird though, was that everyone kept…smiling at him.

“Hey, Allen,” a detective nodded cheerfully. Barry recognised her as someone who had been a beat cop the year Iris died – now she was a senior detective. “Isn’t it supposed to be your day off?”

“I…” Barry stammered, looking around. He _worked_ here? Since when? “Decided to come in, you know,” he hedged, laughing nervously. “Check on work…stuff.”

She chuckled as she walked away. “You never change, Allen!”

Barry ran a hand through his hair. What was happening? It was like he had been dropped onto another Earth – and he would think that was what was going on, but this was definitely his own Earth. It felt the same, and didn’t look like any of the other earths that he visited. Besides, everything on this earth was the same as his own Barry – Cisco was his friend, not evil, and he was The Flash and Wally was Kid Flash. And, he noted, there was no Iris walking around, let alone the no-nonsense Detective he’d met when he went to Earth-2. Iris was dead. The familiar ache intensified like it always did, but he never forgot about it. The moment Iris had died, that pain became permanent. He would just have to-

“Barry! Dude, there you are!”

“What the – Wally?”

Wally West was most definitely not in a wheelchair. He had run in so fast Barry barely noticed him, but then he supposed that was a perk of being Kid Flash. He was in his normal civilian clothes, with a black leather jacket open over a mustard shirt. Kid Flash colours. He also looked out of breath and relieved to see him. “I have been looking for you all over – the Hall, your house…Isn’t today your day off?”

“I – apparently not,” he breathed. He couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face. Whatever reality this was, he was glad it was one where Wally got to be whole and healthy and doing what he loved again. Without a word, he grabbed him in a hug. “It’s really good to see you walking again, Wally.”

Wally made an irritated noise but patted him on the back good-naturedly before letting him go. “Dude, it has been almost ten years and you _still_ get weirder every time I see you,” he laughed. “It was just a broken leg, and Dick apologised.”

“Dick? Who’s that?”

“Funny, Allen. Anyway, I need to talk to you. About…you know.”

“Erm…remind me.”

“The amount of times you wax poetic about love, and this is the thing you forget,” Wally muttered. He looked around, making sure no one could hear him. “I wanted some advice on the best way to propose. You know, to Linda.”

Barry blinked repeatedly at him. “Linda? You want to propose to Linda?”

“Yes, Barry. That’s why I showed you and dad the ring last week.”

“But what about Jesse?”

Wally looked confused for a second and then raised an eyebrow. “You mean Jesse Wells?”

“Yeah.”

“Jesse Wells, Flash of Earth-2, been in a speedster couple for years with Max Mercury, Jesse Wells?”

“…oh.”

“Whatever. Listen, do you think I should go for dinner and be safe, or take her on a date on the place where we had our first one?”

Barry shook his head, trying to get his head around the fact that Wally was now apparently dating Linda. He was kind of sorry he never got to witness that – and then he got a flash of memory and saw Linda in his and Iris’ apartment, Wally flirting unashamedly with her even though they were all supposed to be concentrating on finding The Elongated Man. He frowned. Where had that come from? “I – Wally, why are you asking me? You should just go from the heart – it’ll be better that way.”

“Well, I thought it’d be good to get your advice. You did propose to my sister, what – a dozen times? Plus, you gave me this,” he added, holding up a hand. Barry gaped at the ring on Wally’s finger – exactly like his, except the lightning bolt was yellow and there was only one break in it.

“I…gave you that?”

“Yeah, it was a little weird, you were very excited,” Wally remembered. “I thought you were getting a complex.”

Barry looked around, confused – he built those rings? “W-When did I do that?”

“When you came out of the Speed Force, duh,” he answered. “You were all weird at first, and then you got all zen and had this new lease on life, and you built these rings, and modified our suits, and – wait, why are we talking about this? I need your advice before I go back on duty.”

He swallowed. The memory of him proposing to Iris was still fresh on his mind, but he pushed it away. It would do him no good in trying to navigate this new world he had been dropped in. “Whatever you do, Wally, just be sincere. You’re asking for the biggest privilege you can ask of someone – to be part of their lives forever. You just need to make sure they know you understand how big that is.”

Wally regarded him this and then smiled. “Thanks, Barry.”

“Yeah. Ahem, so where’s Joe?”

“At a meeting, I think. Don’t worry, he’ll be back for the party.”

“Meeting with who?”

“SCPD captain,” he said, checking his phone. “I think – you should check with Cecile.”

“The chief? Why?”

Wally looked at him like he had lost his mind. Then, without a word, he led Barry over to the personnel board, where pictures of people in each department were hung up. Right at the top was Captain Joseph West, under a picture of Joe’s smiling face. And it did not look like a Joe that had lost everything. He was about to day something else when he saw a picture of his own face a few pictures below. “’Barry Allen, Director of CCPD, CSI Division’?”

“You got that promotion _years_ ago, what – okay, maybe you do need that day off,” Wally muttered. “You know, you probably shouldn’t have gone off to help Clark. Listen, I’ll take care of myself. Go to Jitters and get lunch or-” He broke off as his phone started ringing. “Okay, that’s the copyright office calling about the speed battery – I need to get back to my shop and send them the specs.”

“Wally-”

“Thanks for the advice, string bean!” he called, backing out of the precinct. “I owe you. Oh! Pick up the twins, I’ll see you at the party!”

“Who-” But Wally was already gone. Joe was a police Captain, Wally was Kid Flash and dating Linda, Cisco was Vibe and married to Cynthia, and Barry was director to the CSI division of the CCPD. And he was no closer to finding out how all this had happened. Okay, he needed to get somewhere to think. Maybe he would go to Jitters, sit down, and think all of this through.

Barry thought as he walked, trying to get his head around everything. Everyone already knew him in this life, and acted like it was odd he didn’t know what was going on. Wally, Cisco and Joe were regular parts of his life, but Caitlin and Julian apparently weren’t – probably because STAR Labs was completely gone. Jesse was back on Earth-2, and apparently married to someone called Max Mercury, whoever that was, so he assumed that Harry Wells was there with them.

Then there was how _happy_ everyone seemed. Joe was the police captain, something he’d wanted for years. Wally apparently built things like speed batteries and sold them to people. Cisco ran around being his wife’s partner, as well as owning Ramon Industries. Just like he had in Flashpoint.

Barry stopped.

Flashpoint.

It was exactly the way it was before – the world was different, but he was the same. He remembered everything of his old life, but no one else seemed to know what he was talking about. Except…Barry hadn’t created this. He hadn’t gone back in time since trying to do so after he got back from Flashpoint and Jay told him to stop. So how had he gotten here? Was it the Reverse-Flash? According to the Legends, he had been killed by Sara, and he had only heard rumblings of him since. Zoom and Savitar were both gone, and the time-wraiths didn’t do this.

Barry was still thinking about this when he walked into Jitters, and was shocked to find that it said “CC Jitters” instead of “HR Jitters”, which made no sense. After HR’s book “A Time Without Love” had become a bestseller, the part of him that still knew what it was like to be without coffee bought the chain immediately and renamed it. But now, it looked like the Jitters from before. Barry got in line behind a businessman who appeared to be frowning at his phone. He looked, familiar, actually, and – “Oliver?”

Oliver Queen’s suspicious glare, at least, was the same, though it did clear when he saw him. “Barry, there you are,” he said. “I thought you’d be at the Hall – I’ve been looking for you.”

“It looks like everyone has–"

"Wait, hold on.” Oliver answered the phone that had begun to buzz, and then smiled at it. “Hey, you,” he smiled. “Good girl, you learned to call me by yourself! Dinah?” he asked in a slightly strained voice. “When did she learn how to FaceTime me?”

“Our daughter is a genius, Oliver,” a voice said, and Barry’s eyes widened when he recognised it as Laurel’s voice. But when he looked over Oliver’s shoulder, he saw that the smiling little girl looking up at them didn’t look like Oliver _or_ Laurel. “Although it may have been William when he came to visit.”

“Uncle Barry!” the little girl lisped happily once she saw him. Then the camera seemed swallowed up as she held it close to her mouth. “HI UNCLE BARRY CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

“He can – he can hear you, honey,” Oliver said warmly. “Emiko? Emiko, put your mommy on the phone, put mommy – crap,” he sighed. He put the phone away. “I’ll call them later.”

“Oliver,” Barry said carefully. “Is that…Is that Laurel?”

“ _Dinah_ , Barry. She stabbed you the last time you called her Laurel. She stopped calling herself Black Siren, but she’s still Dinah. And of course it’s her – do you not recognise my wife?”

Seeing as this was the second time he’d messed up with this new reality’s relationships, he decided to keep quiet. “Of course I do. Sorry, I’m a little out of it today. And, um – Emiko? She seems…well.”

“She’s starting kindergarten in the fall,” Oliver said proudly. “Which is great. The social worker was a little worried she wouldn’t get there fast enough, which is understandable – we did liberate her from a human trafficking ring.”

“We did?”

“It was a good Easter. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about – Two Flashes, please,” he said to the barista, and then led Barry to a booth at the back. “First of all, League stuff. Noting major, it’s just that we may need a new computer for the weapons room.”

“Why?”

“Because Hal broke it,” Oliver said tiredly. “Don’t ask. Oh, and you need to update Gideon.”

“ _Gideon_?”

“Hello,” a voice said pleasantly.

Barry cursed when a floating blue head burst out of his watch. “Mr. Allen, Mr. Queen.”

“What the hell?” Barry hissed. Gideon – who he hadn’t seen since that night they had broken into the Time Vault – was giving him an enquiring look.

“Hi, Gideon,” Oliver said, and then turned back to Barry. “I don’t know what happened, but whenever she sends messages from you to the Foundry, everything’s in Finnish.”

“I can run a diagnostics report to determine the problem,” Gideon continued helpfully, not paying attention to Barry’s shocked face. Oliver nodded.

“Thank you, Gideon.”

“Certainly. Anything else, Mr. Allen?”

“No – uh, no,” he repeated. “Ahem, we’re good. Thanks…Gideon.”

She nodded and disappeared, and Oliver opened his briefcase as a barista brought them their coffee. “Second, the RSVP for James and Kara’s anniversary party. You return it for me – I am not going through a breach any more times than I have to. It’s bad enough I have to take a five-year-old through one of those things twice.”

Barry took it wordlessly. Alright, he supposed that was the end of Mon-El, then. And if this was their wedding anniversary, the Daxamite hadn’t been on Kara’s mind for a while. He pocketed the letter as Oliver pulled out a folder. “And…report. For you, from Lyla.”

“Lyla?” he asked. As far as he knew, they’d had no business with each other outside from knowing the other through Diggle. “Why is she giving me reports?”

Oliver frowned. “About…your friend. Killer Frost?”

Barry’s stomach plummeted as he opened the file. Caitlin’s obstinate face, eyes the white of her Killer Frost persona, glared up at him. According to the file, she’d been taken in by Lyla and Rick Flag a few years ago, and Barry recognised it as soon after he captured Savitar. And she was under the supervision of Julian Albert.

“Flag’s still not sure whether he can trust her to join the Suicide Squad,” Oliver said quietly. “You know, because it’s pretty serious business. One from, and she’s dead. After Savitar, they’re very wary. Your friend Albert is working on it, but…” He shrugged. “I can’t say what’ll happen.”

Barry’s stomach churned. He once thought that it was his fault, everything that happened to Caitlin, but recently he had begun to see that wasn’t the case. Killer Frost chose to go against her team, to join the plot to kill Iris, and to dismember Cisco. The Caitlin they knew would never do that, especially harm her best friend. “Like I said,” Oliver said, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Can’t say what’ll happen.”

“Right. I – look, Oliver, you need to help me.”

“I am not helping you with another immortal magician, Barry.”

He shook his head helplessly, looking around, and then leaned forward. “Oliver, I don’t know what’s going on, but…I think I’m in the wrong time. Like, I was on my patrol this morning, and something changed, and now Cisco has hands, and Joe’s the police captain, and Wally can walk-”

“Barry, it was just a broken leg,” he interrupted. He gave him an odd look. “Dick didn’t mean to use the catapult on Wally right then, ad Bruce said they’re working on making it safer. Joe has been the captain for years, and as far as I can tell, Cisco has…always had…hands.” He paused. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Oliver, I’m telling you, something’s happened!” Barry ran his hands through his hair. “Like, I don’t remember how we got here at all! I don’t remember becoming the CSI Director, I don’t remember you marrying Dinah or adopting Emiko, I don’t remember starting The Flash museum-”

“You didn’t start The Flash museum,” Oliver frowned. “Cisco and – Barry, I think I should take you home. You seem really freaked.”

“I am! Oliver, I think I’m in someone else’s Flashpoint.”

“That, I know is wrong,” he snorted. “After you did it once, we banned you, Wally and Clark from going back in time unless it was an emergency. That rule’s been in place for years. Look, you need rest. I’ll take you home.”

 _Home_? He’d run to the loft, but it was occupied by someone else, so Barry had no idea where he lived. Maybe going there would help shed some light on things, since Oliver just thought he needed to take a nap. He looked at Oliver as they walked to his town car and got in, Oliver immediately taking a call. He was also wearing a ring on his left hand. Married to Earth-2’s Dinah Laurel Lance. They seemed happy, with their little spitfire of a daughter. Wally was his usual boundless source of energy and optimism. Cisco was a high-flying inventor, happily married and well-known in Central City. And the city itself seemed to be thriving under the protection of both Flashes.

“Sorry, Barry,” Oliver said as they pulled up to the house. “I have another meeting with our Central City office before I get back to the hotel. But don’t worry,” he added, “we won’t be late to the party. Emiko’s very excited to see the twins again.”

“Oliver,” Barry asked. “Who are the twins?”

Oliver laughed. “Funny, Barry. See you tonight.”

Barry watched him leave, thinking. Everyone seemed so _happy_. Apart from him, but then he never expected to be happy after Iris died. And pretty much everyone that had been in his life had made an appearance apart from her. Nobody had even mentioned her. He looked at his ring finger again, resenting the bare, pale skin. If she were alive, they would be married. Barry was certain of that. But maybe this was his punishment. Maybe the Speed Force had finally stopped being so malicious and only decided to punish him instead of everyone else. He only regretted that they had to take Iris from him, from everyone, in the process.

Barry’s house was a lovely affair, a little big for just one person, with a jeep outside of it and a swing on the veranda. He automatically dug in his pocket and stuck his key in the lock, and then frowned. How had he known which key to use? Then he shrugged. Maybe his body knew things his mind didn’t. When he entered the door slammed against something, and he saw that someone had piled luggage high against the door. He manoeuvred around it, frowning. Who had put all of this here? He shut the door. Whoever had done this had been on quite the trip – they were blocking most of the hall. He was just trying to decide whether he should open them – they could be his, after all – when he heard a voice.

And his entire world stopped.

“…not my idea, you should all blame Lois…”

Barry’s heart was about to burst out of his chest, and his first instinct was not to trust it, that it wasn’t her, because it couldn’t be, it couldn’t…

“…my first one, and the Gotham Gazette is pretty cool…”

But his feet were moving of their own accord – they always did, when it came to Iris, his entire being was always drawn to her like a magnet to it’s match. He ventured into what he saw was the kitchen, where she was leaning against the breakfast bar playing with her necklace. Her back was to him and she seemed enthralled in the conversation, but she was here. Alive and breathing and _here_.

“…just because Perry White wants to,” Iris continued, playing with her rings. “I actually missed Mason, you know? Yeah, right. Okay. Bye, Linda.” She turned around and smiled happily at him. “Barry!”

Without a word, like it was seven years ago and she was just coming home from work, she reached up and kissed him. He almost didn’t react, he was so in shock, but then he kissed her like he’d always missed since she died in his arms. He felt like she would disappear from between his hands at any moment, and then Savitar would be laughing at him, like he always was, in his dreams and in his nightmares. But then he was hit with a wave of memories – him kissing Iris after she won her Pulitzer, her kissing him after his promotion and…a kiss on their wedding day?

Where were these memories coming from?

 “Iris,” he finally managed in a strangled voice. “W-What are you doing here?”

“The conference ended early,” she shrugged. “And I knew you were tired, so I just got a town car to drive me from the airport. I charged it to Oliver. If he complains, just tell him it’s one of the punishments for giving DJ plastic arrows for Christmas.”

“But you…you’re _here_. How – how are you here?”

Iris stared at him, a surprised smile on her face. “Well, if you mean the fact that the conference ended early because a certain Scarlett Speedster was helping Superman take care of Doomsday, then that’s why I’m here. Plus, we have a party tonight. Did you manage to swing by the museum today?”

“Yeah,” he smiled faintly. Maybe this was real. Maybe he would get to keep this. And Iris – Iris looked as beautiful as he always remembered, maybe with her hair a little shorter and more pronounced laugh lines, but she was here. “Yeah, it was…nice.”

Iris smiled at him and he pulled her towards him and kissed her again, because he still didn't quite believe it yet. He fastened an arm around her waist, needing to feel her against him, and cupped her cheek, tilting his head to the side to deepen their kiss. It felt like all those other times they kissed, under threat of the tsunami and the night they moved in together and the night he proposed, but better because he might actually get to keep this magical life. Iris, her arms looped around his neck, looked up at him through warm, lidded eyes. "What was that for?"

"Nothing," he replied. He looked at her face, still amazed she was in front of him, and swallowed. "I just missed you, I guess. It feels like I've been waiting...lifetimes to do that." He stroked a finger down her cheek softly. "My Iris."

She laughed warmly. "You're such a dork. I love you."

"I love you too. More than...more than life itself."

She let go of him and kissed his hand, before frowning. "Barry, where's your ring?"

"My ring?"

"Did you not come home at all after helping Clark?" Iris took his hand and led him to the cabinet in their living room, before digging his keys out to open a small drawer. She took out a small velvet box and popped it open to reveal a silver wedding band that he immediately knew went on his finger. On the inside were the words "Every hour, every minute" and a date.

"There," she said triumphantly, sliding the ring on his finger. Then she fixed his collar. "Justice League missions are cool, but they do not lend themselves well to expensive wedding rings. People should know you're a taken man."

"Well, I have no problem telling people all about my amazing wife, so there's no need to worry about that."

“Good. Now, where are the twins? I want to spend some time with my kids and my husband before we have to leave.”

And that was the moment that almost broke Barry Allen. The twins were _theirs_?  “K-Kids? With an ‘s’?”

“Of course with an ‘s’. Do you think I spent eighteen hours in labour and then gave birth to meta babies to forget my own kids? You were supposed to pick them up from daycare – Barry,” she said, her voice taking on a warning tone. She stepped closer to him. “ _Where are the twins_?”

Barry was still trying to get used to the fact that he and Iris had two babies in this reality, but then the door opened. “We’re here!”

“Joe?” Barry frowned, and then they heard two babbling voices. When Barry saw the two toddlers wander into the living room and then let out excited shrieks when they saw them both, he felt a rush of protectiveness and love so strong it almost knocked the wind out of him. Then more memories – Tracy telling them they were having twins, all the exhausted laughing when she gave birth, and taking their first steps.

“Babies!” Iris squealed, holding her arms out – they ran to her with shouts of “mommy”, and Barry stared at them. They were a boy and a girl, both with curly brown hair and warm brown skin. _Donovan and Dawnette_ , he thought suddenly. He knew with certainty that they called the boy Donnie and the girl DJ.

“Ooh, I missed you so much! Were you good for daddy?”

“Daddy!” DJ shrieked, and ran right at Barry’s legs. He automatically picked her up and grinned at her, and she started explaining something in a mixture of gibberish and real words, his own green eyes bright with excitement in her face. Joe tapped him on the shoulder after her had hugged Iris hello.

“Hey, Bar,” he said cheerfully, clapping him on the shoulder. “Sorry, I picked up the twins on my way back – my meeting ended early.”

“’S’ok,” he said, still mesmerised by his daughter. “How was it?”

“Fine. You know Lance, always exaggerates. Though with that crazy man as mayor, I’m not surprised.”

“Dad,” Iris said, taking off Donnie’s jacket, “will you please be nice to Oliver tonight?”

“That depends – is he leaving his arrows at home?”

“Whatever,” she laughed. “Bar, would you help me feed these two? They need to nap before – what? What is it?”

“Nothing,” he said, smiling. “My day just got a lot better.”

***

It took him hours to stop feeling like it would be taken away from him.

Iris told him about her conference with Lois Lane, where they both gave seminars on reporting in cities with superheroes while he fed the kids. Then they put the kids to bed for an hour, before waking them up and bathing them so they could get into their good clothes for the party at the museum. And with each smile, touch and kiss, he kept thinking that this was where it would end, where she would go limp in his arms and reality would bleed back into a nightmare. But it wasn’t happening – he was sitting on their bed, listening to the kids play in their room before they left, and watching Iris get ready. She was resplendent in a red dress, whether because he’d missed her for so long or because she was always this beautiful. It was probably both.

And the memories kept coming. He remembered being proud when Ramon Industries went national, and liberating that human trafficking ring with Oliver, and starting the Justice League. Which explained why he’d found a secret map leading to the Hall of Justice under his desk in the study.

“…make sure we get some pictures with Cisco and Cindy,” Iris said, putting her earrings on. “She hates them, but she _is_ married to one of the top ten richest men in the country.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Which reminds me, if Dick Grayson thinks he is launching my brother out of another catapult, I am shooting both him and Bruce.”

“Great.”

“Barry?” she asked, turning to him. Her brown eyes were round with concern. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, fine. I was just – um. I was thinking about Savitar. What happened to him. Do you remember it?”

She came to sit next to him. “How could I forget? H.R. died and it was… _horrible_ , but we were finally safe. We were okay. And then the Speed Force storm happened, and you volunteered to go in there to save the world.” She paused, shaking her head. “I got my life back, but I also lost the love of my life, so it didn’t really feel like a win. I know you came back six months later, but I felt so…done. Useless. I kept running, like you asked, but I wanted to do something _more_. You and H.R. gave up so much for me, for the world, so I shut down STAR Labs and turned it into the museum.”

Barry frowned briefly, but Iris wasn’t looking at him. “I remember I was so happy. Well,” she amended, “as happy as I could be. I wanted everyone to realise that being a hero was more about heart than powers, so I always told these stories of how you tried to save the villains, how you never wanted to kill them. Honestly,” she laughed, “you kind of ruined all my poignant hard work, coming out of the Speed Force like that, you ass.”

Barry laughed and then her phone rang, so she got up to go answer it. Barry sat, marvelling. Those memories were coming back too – coming out of the Speed Force, readjusting, suddenly feeling this _zest_ for life that had him building new suits and Flash rings and headquarters that they could work in. He got up, wanting to go play with his kids, when there was flash of blue light and a figure appeared before him. He knew it before she even began speaking. “Mom?”

“My beautiful boy,” she said, smiling serenely. Barry’s heart sank slightly, as it always did.

“Speed Force,” he said. “What are you doing here? What’s going on? Why did everything change?”

“Because you did it, Barry,” she answered. “You changed the future.”

“I…what?”

“Your past self coming to the future helped the team to defeat Savitar. Iris never died, so your future changed.”

Barry fell back down on the bed. _He did it_. “We w-won?” he stuttered. “How?”

“Oh, Barry,” she smiled. “The same way you always win. You never gave up. You kept running. And now everything is the way it should be.”

“But what if it changes again?” he demanded, fear taking over. He would not lose this life – everyone happy and his family safe and _Iris_. “I still remember Iris dying and Cisco losing his hands, and Wally…Wally…was…” But he was grasping, the memory dancing out of reach.

“Wally was what?”

“I don’t…I don’t remember.”

“Because time is beginning to set, Barry. Your memories of this life will replace the ones where Iris died. Soon, you won’t remember that timeline at all.” She smiled again. “Go, Barry. Go enjoy the life you fought for.”

“Felicity and Ray are coming,” Iris said, walking back into the room. Nora had disappeared. “That girl never RSVPs. Anyway, I wanted to ask – why the sudden trip down memory lane?”

“Nothing,” he said, standing. He held his hands out to her and she grabbed them. “Just thinking. Remember the night I proposed?”

“Candles and food or Music Meister and song?”

“Music Meister and song.”

“Of course,” she replied softly. “It’s not everyday a girl is serenaded and then proposed to.”

Barry smiles and puts her arms around his neck. “ _Can’t say how the days will unfold_ ,” he sang softly, and Iris laughed.

“Barry.”

“ _Can’t change what the future may hold_.”

“Barry, we’re going to be late!”

“ _But I want you in it_ ….”

“It's the fifth anniversary of you and Wally defeating Godspeed. I have to make a speech – and you’re The Flash, you have to make an appearance!”

“ _Every hour, every_ …” He kissed her. “ _…minute_.”

Iris is right – they did have to go. And they’d have to deal with the fact that Donnie had thrown his bowtie in the sink and DJ was trying to feed McSnurtle yoghurt, but for now? For now, Barry was content to feel safe in this life, the life he fought for, and be grateful that for the rest of his life, this is what he got to run home to.

**Author's Note:**

> OK to clarify - Emiko Queen is actually Robert Queen's daughter but I remixed it here. Arrow can have SOME stuff be canon haha.  
> Killer Frost does join the Suicide Squad in the comics at some point.  
> I'm operating on the assumption that, in Emo Barry's timeline, everything after 3x19 didn't happen because he originally didn't go to the future.


End file.
